The Application of Behavioural Insights to Financial Literacy and Investor Education Programmes

124 Pages·2017·5.18 MB·English

The Application of
Behavioural Insights
to Financial Literacy
and Investor Education
Programmes and
Initiatives
This work is published under the responsibility of the Board of IOSCO and the Secretary-
General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not
necessarily refect the offcial views of IOSCO members nor OECD member countries.
This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or
sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries
and to the name of any territory, city or area.
Please cite this paper as: IOSCO and OECD (2018), The Application of Behavioural Insights to
Financial Literacy and Investor Education Programmes and Initiatives

Copies of publications are available from the IOSCO website www.iosco.org and the OECD
website www.oecd.org

© International Organization of Securities Commissions – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development 2018. All rights reserved.
Brief excerpts may be reproduced or translated provided the source is stated.
IOSCO – The International Organization of Securities Commissions
(IOSCO), established in 1983, is the acknowledged international body
that brings together the world’s securities regulators and is recognised
as the global standard setter for the securities sector.
IOSCO develops, implements and promotes adherence to internationally
recognized standards for securities regulation, and is dedicated to
enhancing investor protection and promoting investor confdence.
IOSCO’s membership regulates more than 95% of the world’s securities
market and is one of the few international organizations that includes
all the major emerging market jurisdictions within its membership.
IOSCO believes the need for investor education and fnancial literacy
has never been greater than it is today. In response to these challenges,
the IOSCO Board established Committee 8 on Retail Investors in 2013.
The Committee’s primary mandate is to conduct IOSCO’s policy work
on retail investor education and fnancial literacy. Its secondary mandate
is to advise the IOSCO Board on emerging retail investor protection
matters and conduct investor protection policy work as directed by the
IOSCO Board.
See www.iosco.org
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development –
OECD is a unique forum where governments work together to address
the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation.
The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to
help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such
as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges
of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where
governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common
problems, identify good practice, and work to co-ordinate domestic and
international policies. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results
of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic,
social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines
and standards agreed by its members.
OECD governments offcially recognised the importance of fnancial
literacy in 2002 with the launch of a unique and comprehensive project.
In 2008 the project was further enhanced through the creation of an
International Network on Financial Education – INFE. The OECD/
INFE has high-level membership from over 240 public institutions –
including central banks, fnancial regulators and supervisors, ministries
of fnance and ministries of education – in over 110 countries. Members
meet twice a year to share country and member experiences, discuss
strategic priorities, and develop policy responses.
See www.oecd.org/fnance/fnancial-education
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6
ExECUTIVE SUMMARY 7
1 - INTRODUCTION 11
1.1. SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY 12
2 - BACKGROUND AND CONTExT 13
2.1. THE IMPORTANCE OF INVESTOR EDUCATION AND FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR GENERAL CONSUMERS
AND RETAIL INVESTORS 13
2.2. BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS, HEURISTICS, AND BIASES 14
2.3. BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS DEFINITION 15
2.4. CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, INVESTOR EDUCATION, AND FINANCIAL LITERACY 16
3 - LITERATURE REVIEW 18
3.1. DEBIASING 18
3.2. OTHER APPLICATIONS OF BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS TO INVESTOR EDUCATION AND FINANCIAL LITERACY 24
3.3. FINDINGS IN BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES RESEARCH WITH POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS TO FINANCIAL
LITERACY AND INVESTOR EDUCATION INITIATIVES 29
4 - BEHAVIOURAL FRAMEWORKS APPLICABLE TO THE DESIGN OF INVESTOR
EDUCATION AND FINANCIAL LITERACY PROGRAMMES 32
4.1. COM-B 33
4.2. THE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE WHEEL (BCW) 34
4.3. MINDSPACE 37
4.4. EAST 39
4.5. TEST 39
4 .6. DESIGN FOR BEHAVIOUR CHANGE (CREATE) 40
4.7. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR FINANCIAL BEHAVIOUR CHANGE WITH EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES 42
5 - THE APPLICATION OF BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS TO INVESTOR EDUCATION AND
FINANCIAL LITERACY INITIATIVES AMONG IOSCO AND OECD/INFE MEMBERS 44
5.1. RESOURCES DEDICATED TO TRAINING, RESEARCH, AND APPLICATION OF BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS 44
5.2. APPLICATIONS OF BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS TO FINANCIAL LITERACY/INVESTOR EDUCATION PROGRAMMES 47
5.3. BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS APPLIED TO REGULATION 75
6 - APPROACHES 79
7 - CONCLUSION 82
APPENDIx A - IOSCO AND OECD/INFE MEMBERS PARTICIPATING IN THE SURVEYS 83
APPENDIx B - PUBLICATIONS FROM OECD, IOSCO, IOSCO MEMBERS, AND OECD/INFE
MEMBERS ON BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES AND INSIGHTS, RELATED TO INVESTOR
EDUCATION AND FINANCIAL LITERACY 86
APPENDIx C - ONLINE RESOURCES AND EVENTS FROM IOSCO AND OECD/INFE
MEMBERS 93
APPENDIx D - LITERATURE REVIEW REFERENCES 94
APPENDIx E - SURVEY OF IOSCO MEMBERS ON APPLICATION OF BEHAVIOURAL
INSIGHTS TO INVESTOR PROGRAMMES AND INITIATIVES,
DECEMBER 2016-JANUARY 2017 103
APPENDIx F - OECD/INFE SURVEY ON THE APPLICATION OF BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS
(BI) TO FINANCIAL EDUCATION AND FINANCIAL LITERACY PROGRAMMES AND
INITIATIVES, APRIL 2017 - SEPTEMBER 2017 114
APPENDIx G - IOSCO COMMITTEE 8 MEMBERS 121
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We extend gratitude to the below academics and professionals for their contributions to this report:
• Dr Bernardo Nunes
• Dr Cäzilia Loibl
• Dr Jeremy Burke
• Dr Jeremy Ko
• Dr Vera Rita Ferreira
• Members of IOSCO
• Members of the OECD/INFE
The Application of Behavioural Insights to Financial Literacy and Investor Education Programmes and Initiatives
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
High-quality investor education and f nancial literacy programs can help provide consumers
and retail investors with a wide range of benef ts, including more informed saving and investment
decision-making, better f nancial and retirement planning skills, higher levels of f nancial inclusion,
as well as greater conf dence and higher participation in the securities markets.
Nonetheless, there is a range of cognitive, social and psychological factors or barriers that
may prevent people from using their newly acquired knowledge to make satisfactory or rational
f nancial choices. Behavioural economics has identif ed these barriers, known as biases in the
scientif c literature and which often arise from the use of heuristics (i.e. mental shortcuts) to
simplify the decision-making process.
Behavioural sciences focus on the way people think and behave, based on empirical evidence
from a range of social sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology, pedagogy,
sociology, and social marketing. Consequently, the insights generated may be used to help
overcome biases and develop simple, sometimes low-cost, and effective investor education and
f nancial literacy initiatives.
This publication reports the results of complementary surveys of members of both the
International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development International Network on Financial Education (OECD/INFE).
These surveys explored the extent to which behavioural insights are used to guide f nancial literacy
and investor education policies and practice.
IOSCO’s Committee 8 on Retail Investors (C8) surveyed IOSCO members on the resources
they commit and their experiences applying behavioural insights to investor education
programmes and initiatives. The INFE Secretariat circulated a questionnaire on the application
of behavioural insights to f nancial literacy and f nancial education policies and practice, to
OECD/INFE members. The questionnaires are available in, respectively, Appendices E and
F of this report.
The majority of the respondents reported that they actively seek or learn from behavioural
insights, mostly through existing literature, events, and partnerships/networks. Almost half of
those that are not applying behavioural insights (twenty-six institutions) expressed interest in doing
so in the future.
This report also presents a literature review of relevant papers and reports on educational
initiatives in the areas of investor education and f nancial literacy, with the use of insights from
behavioural sciences.
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The Application of Behavioural Insights to Financial Literacy and Investor Education Programmes and Initiatives
Approaches
Based on the literature review and survey responses, C8 and the OECD/INFE developed a set
of approaches considered to be effective for regulators, policy-makers, and other organisations and
practitioners that are considering whether or how to apply insights from behavioural sciences to
investor and fnancial education programmes and initiatives. These approaches are, in summary, to:
• establish a concrete understanding of the problem;
• design the intervention taking the context into account;
• start small;
• evaluate rigorously;
• interact, learn, and keep track;
• create thought leadership;
• consider combining traditional approaches and those based on behavioural insights; and
• review programs and initiatives regularly.
Preparation of the report:
Literature review
To prepare this report, the authors reviewed 141 selected papers and reports with relevant
behavioural insights and their applications to the areas of investor education and fnancial literacy.
The review focused on strategies to mitigate or eliminate the effects of behavioural biases (i.e.,
debiasing). Debiasing strategies can be classifed according to the object of intervention: the
investor or the decision environment. The review identifed debiasing strategies intended to improve
investors’ fnancial literacy using experiential-learning techniques, simulation systems, and
educational approaches.
The literature review identifed debiasing strategies that may modify the decision environment
in two ways: placing incentives or altering the choice context. The review indicates that monetary incentives
(e.g., payment for attendance and contribution matching) have successfully increased uptake of
fnancial literacy programmes and retirement savings accounts. Prize-linked savings carry a monetary
incentive that offers an attractive learning-by-doing opportunity. Non-economic incentives (such
as introducing accountability and conveying social norms) can foster group saving behaviour.
Choice architecture interventions or “nudges” build on the evidence that people sometimes make
irrational and inconsistent decisions, so the designed solutions focus on automatic processes
of judgement. A widely applied and studied nudge is the default enrolment, which managed to
stimulate participation in retirement savings plans. The review also identifed experiments using
commitment devices, mental accounting mechanisms, and text reminders to increase the savings
rate of low-income groups.
Other applications of behavioural insights identifed in the review, such as rule-of-thumb training
and individualised counselling, increase programme participants’ self-effcacy and address their lack
of self-control, forgetfulness, and procrastination. Emotional engagement is a powerful tool to keep
learners’ attention and deliver educational messages through soap operas, movies, and interactive
programmes. Financial coaching can tackle clients’ intention-action gap by setting fnancial goals
and suggesting the use of automated tools for recurring transactions. The Transtheoretical Model
considers behaviour change as a process and presents a framework to assess one’s stage of change,
as well as ten processes of change to be applied according to the identifed stage.
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The Application of Behavioural Insights to Financial Literacy and Investor Education Programmes and Initiatives
The review also identifed theories and techniques from behavioural sciences as potential
applications. Financial socialisation, the Theory of Planned Behaviour, and gamifcation offer
behavioural insights into collective learning, the infuences on attitudes and perceived control, and
greater self-effcacy and engagement, respectively. The Big Five Inventory is a psychological scale
that describes one’s personality based on a questionnaire. The scale’s correlation with fnancial
behaviour is under intense study.
This report describes the six behavioural frameworks that are most currently used by academics,
economists and others to design behaviour change interventions: COM-B, the Behaviour Change
Wheel, MINDSPACE, EAST, TEST, and CREATE. This report also presents a conceptual
framework specifcally conceived for fostering fnancial behaviour change through educational
strategies (see Section 4 for further information about these frameworks).
Survey results
In addition to the literature review, IOSCO and OECD/INFE surveyed their members on
the resources they commit to, and their experience in, working with behavioural applications.
From December 2016 to September 2017, ffty-nine IOSCO members representing forty-
eight jurisdictions and thirty-four OECD/INFE member institutions from thirty countries and
economies replied to a member survey. Of the thirty-four OECD/INFE institutions, eleven also
participated in the IOSCO C8 Survey, refecting their responsibility for both fnancial literacy
and investor education in their jurisdictions. The responses to both surveys from these eleven
common organisations were analysed for consistency and repeated information was counted only
once. The term ‘respondents’ is used in the rest of this report to indicate institutions responding
to either, or both surveys.
The majority of the respondents reported that they actively seek or learn from behavioural
insights, mostly through existing literature, events, and partnerships/networks.
A number of IOSCO and OECD/INFE members have developed debiasing applications for
education purposes based on both the investor and the decision-making environment. Survey
respondents highlighted the use of online resources and face-to-face initiatives intended to raise
participants’ awareness of behavioural biases, and teach them social skills and fnancial decision-
making techniques aimed at improving their fnancial literacy levels. Respondents said they also
simulated fnancial situations and provided instant feedback on the choices made by participants.
Many respondents stated collecting information on consumer behaviours from quantitative and
qualitative research, and testing prototypes are crucial steps in designing effective educational tools.
Some respondents have carried out randomised control trials to test how different ways of framing
disclosure and communication prompt investors to change funds and savings accounts. Some have
also tested choice architecture interventions, such as a nudge designed to increase compliance by
directors of failed companies and a repayment solution produced according to the salience and
simplifcation principles.
A number of survey respondents described campaigns that were developed taking into account
behavioural insights, particularly those derived from personality traits defned in the Big Five
Inventory. This includes the use of messages appealing to social norming and the audience’s
overconfdence bias, and investors’ responses to games.
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The Application of Behavioural Insights to Financial Literacy and Investor Education Programmes and Initiatives
In addition, certain institutions use behavioural insights in consumer protection regulation/
supervision. A number of regulators have conducted qualitative and quantitative surveys to
collect, for example, insights into investors’ perceptions, understanding, and preferences for new
crowdfunding rules. Some have also run experiments and conducted surveys to test the effectiveness
and infuence of different disclosure formats on investor decision-making.
Several respondents in charge of fnancial literacy in their jurisdictions are applying behavioural
insights to develop fnancial education policies. The majority of these respondents apply the
fndings of behavioural sciences to specifc fnancial education initiatives. Almost half of those
that are not applying behavioural insights (twenty-six institutions) expressed interest in doing so
in the future. Relatively few institutions apply scientifc frameworks (such as MINDSPACE and
EAST) to their fnancial education policies. Methods that are used include randomised control
trials (to provide evidence of behavioural change), behaviour-centric approaches (deep interviews,
prototyping, testing), EAST methodology, COM-B model, feld experiment, mystery shopping,
and experimental lab (see Section 5 for further information about these methods).
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